The Gottman 7 Principles for Making Marriage Work – Couples workshop

“By incorporating these Seven Principles into your marriage, you really can change the course of your relationship.”

— John M. Gottman

A Relationship Enrichment Workshop

This psycho-educational workshop, developed by the Gottman Institute, provides couples with foundational knowledge on healthy relationships as well as the opportunity to practice practical hands-on activities. The seven principles are helpful for couples at any stage of the relationship.

The workshop is built on decades of data and research regarding relationship satisfaction and follows the outline of the groundbreaking New York Times best seller The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work by John Gottman, Ph.D. and Nan Silver. This workshop aids couples in deepening the friendship foundation of their relationship, managing conflict successfully, honoring each other’s dreams, and creating shared meaning.

Format

  • A modular cumulative approach
  • 12 hours total training, conducted on Google Meet
  • Teaching and demonstrations with break out sessions where you and your partner work through activities. Break out sessions occur between the couple and are not shared with the group.
  • Group runs based on minimum number of registrants. Limited spaces available.
  • Led by a trained Gottman Seven Principles Program Leader who has also completed Level 2 Training in Gottman Method Couples Therapy.
  • Participants will receive a Couples Guide and Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work book.
  • Couples Guide helps integrate knowledge from the book and provides space to complete the exercises in the workshop

What You Will Learn

  • Improve friendship, fondness, and admiration
  • Enhance romance and intimacy
  • Manage conflict constructively
  • Gain skills to address problems calmly 
  • Create shared meaning
  • How to maintain gains throughout a lifetime

Who Should Attend

  • Couples in committed relationships, whether that is pre-engaged, pre-marriage, married, common-law. These skills apply to every phase of a relationship.
  • Those who wish to enhance/strengthen their relationship
  • Couples needing better conflict management tools
  • Couples who may be contemplating couples therapy but are not yet ready for therapeutic support
  • People and couples of all backgrounds, ages, faiths, sexual orientations, and relationship arrangements

Who Should Not Attend

This psycho-educational class format is not appropriate for all couples. This workshop is not intended for:

  • Couples dealing with any form of abuse, domestic violence, unwanted touch, or substance abuse
  • Couples dealing with severe relationship distress
  • Individuals struggling with serious emotional or mental health problems
  • Relationships with serious compulsive behaviour with gambling, sexual acting out and other disruptive behaviours.

If any of the above mentioned points describes you and/or your relationship, this class is not appropriate, instead it is recommended to seek individual or couples therapy.

Frequently Asked Questions

No. The workshop does not include sharing problems or issues publicly. Couples Exercises are done privately.
Since the workshop involves couples doing exercise together, both partners must participate. If the workshop is offered over a period of time and one partner must miss a particular class meeting, then the other partner is encouraged to attend the lecture portion of the class. He or she may use the Couples Exercises time to do part of the exercise and then do the full exercise with their partner later. They may also use exercise time to read the Seven Principles book.
Yes, still come to the workshop. While the book provides very valuable information, the class lectures will summarize the content of the book. Each person will need a Couples Guide, however, to do the Couples Exercises efficiently.
The class will involve doing some of the exercises from the book so doing them first at home would duplicate some of them. In some cases, the directions for doing the exercises in class have been revised and updated from those presented in the Seven Principles book. The Leaders also role-play/demonstrate how to - and how not to - do some of the exercises in order to help participants get the most out of each exercise. There are some exercises in the book that the class will not have time to do, and couples are encouraged to do them at home after that chapter has been covered in class.